Karen Schneider Kirner

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Karen Schneider Kirner, a native of Evansville, Indiana, hails from the University of Notre Dame. At Notre Dame she is on the Campus Ministry staff, directs the Celebration and Handbell Choirs, is Assistant Organist for the Basilica of the Sacred Heart, and is Assistant Director/Accompanist for the Notre Dame Folk Choir. She has collaborated with Steve Warner in composing/arranging several octavos for the Folk Choir. With the University of Notre Dame Handbell Choir she has recorded "Ring Out Your Joy!", integrating acoustic instruments such as harp, strings, oboe, and flute. Nineteen original arrangements/compositions of Ms. Schneider Kirner are included in this collection, some of which are published through World Library Publications.

From Ball State University she holds a Bachelor of Music degree in Organ Performance. From Yale University she holds a Masters of Music degree and a Masters in Art and Religion, through the Yale Institute of Sacred Music. At Yale she was the Charles Ives Scholar and was a winner of the Graduate Concerto Competition. She has spent one year in the Roman Catholic Church Music program at the Hochschule fur Musik in Vienna, Austria, studying organ performance with Peter Planyavsky. As concert organist, Ms. Schneider Kirner has made several European concert tours, participating in International Music Festivals. She has performed organ recitals in the following locations: Westminster Abbey and Southwark Cathedral, London; Church of St. Nicholas in Prague; Jasna Gora Basilica in Czestochowa, Poland; St. Patrick's Cathedral and St. Thomas Church, New York City; The National Cathedral in Washington, D.C.; St. Mary's Cathedral in San Francisco; and the Cathedral of the Holy Name in Chicago. In May 2001 she performed as organ soloist at Alice Tully Hall, NYC, with the Metropolitan Youth Orchestra.